


Tsume Yells

by TBCat



Series: Seen but Not Heard [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon, Sexism, Worldbuilding, cursing, sick burns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 08:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16082588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TBCat/pseuds/TBCat
Summary: As if motherhood would be any less bloody than a war.





	Tsume Yells

**Author's Note:**

> This is post Second(?) Shinobi World War, but pre-canon. I'm just playing around in this 'verse a little bit before I commit to writing any big works for it, so the series is still generally canon compliant.

Tsume yells, instead of crying and instead of dragging her claws through the filthy throats that dare to mimic sensible speech in her direction.

Inuzuka Tsume is a clan head, an accomplished shinobi, and a firm leader. So, she stands before the clan council expecting to be treated as an equal and is unpleasantly surprised to learn why she has been called forth.

Inuzuka Tsume is a pillar of this village bpth in terms of her own abilities as a shinobi, and in economic respect towards the land-owning Inuzuka clan. So, she stands before the clan council when she could be doing a hundred, thousand, million other things and expects her summons to concern something important. She is surprised to find that she is being spoken to concerning her pregnancy.

“Is it true,” Uchiha Fugaku asks, and Tsume wants to cry that a personal joy is being spoken of with all the weight of the Uchiha’s practiced judgement. Tsume could rip out his throat before he could respond, and even if the sharingan allowed Fugaku to react in time Tsume knows from Kuromaru’s firm weight at her side that he would be ready to flank and crush Fugaku’s spine in his teeth. “The clan council, of course, respects the traditions and privacy of each clan,” Fugaku continues, and Tsume watches in disbelief as the gathered men nod in agreement, “but we didn’t even know that you had found a husband. We will, of course, need to know the identity of whoever will be taking the duties of clan head.”

Tsume knows, of course she knows, what the gathered clan council is speaking circles around. Yet, Tsume can’t believe that anyone would string words together into such meaningless slop, and she wants to cry at the seriousness and derision that assualts her nose with every breath.

Tsume yells, instead of crying or crushing throats, “Is what true, balls-for-brains!?” Kuromaru gratifyingly tips his head towards Tsume in submission and comfort. “And who spread stupid rumors about me getting married or stepping down from my duties to the clan!”

Tsume’s daughter is barely a heartbeat in her stomach, doesn’t even have her own scent, and Tsume’s handful of nieces and nephews and cousins barely know how to manage their own lives and jobs. Tsume isn’t abandoning her clan and pack, and she hasn’t been challenged since she hamstrung the last one.

Men are all talk and no brains, and sometimes Tsume forgets that when her clanmates at least have discipline and common sense. Mere minutes with the clan council, the best that Konoha has to offer, and Tsume is moved to angry tears at the reminder.

Tsume yells instead crying. Tsume yells instead of acting on the source of the problem and driving her teeth into men’s throats until they learns something. Tsume is an Inuzuka, but she is also a shinobi of Konoha, so she yells instead of watering the land she belongs to with blood.

Shimura Danzo speaks with a rasp and one soft eye. He looks like Inuzuka Ten reassuring a new pup, but he smells like pneumonia and pity. “The council knows that you are pregnant. Now that the nations are at peace, we are glad that you have a new chance to be a mother.”

Tsume hates pity.

“Why, thank you for your congratulations,” Tsume grits out, “I have many duties to fulfill, if that was all?” These men are useless, jabbering idiots, but they are also the ruling aristocracy of Konoha.

Fugaku continues speaking as if the hot air he exhales is worth anything at all. “Inuzuka, please be reasonable. As the clan council, we need to know who is taking over your duties as clan representative, at the least,” he speaks slowly and over enunciated as if he is speaking to a child.

Tsume yells, instead of crying at the disrespect, “No one has taken over the Inuzuka Clan, and no one will!” The clan council are a group of nattering baboons crowned by King Baboon Hiruzen, and Tsume yells. Tsume yells instead of crying or howling for blood, and she wonders if the idiots arrayed before her remember that the Inuzuka have cornered the markets on exotic meats and civilian medicine. The Inuzuka Clan are personally and directly employed by the daimyo for hunting, and the daimyo’s wife for the care of the pet Torah. The clan council are a bunch of idiots, and Tsume yells instead of taking pity on Konoha and killing them. “I am still the head of Clan Inuzuka, and that is unlikely to change any time soon you daft group of sterile dickheads!”

Kuromaru growls subvocally, and Tsume focuses on the smell of her packmate instead of her offense.

“Is your new husband going to take over child-rearing, then?” Uchiha Fugaku asks vocally. “That seems impractical, when children really do need a woman’s touch,” He says, as if the mockery of polite language actually forms a cohesive thought. Kuromaru rolls his eye.

“Obviously,” Tsume yells, instead of staining the white silk tablecloth with dark red, “I need to speak slowly so that you ill-bred lap dogs can understand anything!”

She copies Uchiha Fugaku’s derisive, over-enunciated drawl and yells, “I do not have a husband! The child is mine! I am not rolling over and giving away the Inuzuka Clan! I have been the Clan Head through a war, and will continue to be the Clan Head in peace! I don’t understand what ‘a woman’s touch’ has to do with anything, or what you would know about it when a woman would clearly never touch you with a ten meter pole, but my child will be raised as an Inuzuka, by Inuzuka, and that is not the Village’s or Clan Council’s concern!” Then, Kuromaru pushes Tsume out of the room before her yells change into the sound of pained cries freshly drawn from her audience.

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, Tsume has the best insults, this was so fun to write.


End file.
